The Flight Of The Maidens

Author : Jane Gardam
Publisher : Europa Editions
ISBN 13 : 1609454065
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Flight of the Maidens written by Jane Gardam and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Whitbread Award–winning author of the Old Filth trilogy captures a moment in time for three young women on the cusp of adulthood. Yorkshire, 1946. The end of the war has changed the world again, and, emboldened by this new dawning, Hetty Fallows, Una Vane, and Lieselotte Klein seize the opportunities with enthusiasm. Hetty, desperate to escape the grasp of her critical mother, books a solo holiday to the Lake District under the pretext of completing her Oxford summer coursework. Una, the daughter of a disconcertingly cheery hairdresser, entertains a romantically inclined young man from the wrong side of the tracks and the left-side of politics. Meanwhile, Lieselotte, the mysterious Jewish refugee from Germany, leaves the Quaker family who had rescued her, to test herself in London. Although strikingly different from one another, these young women share the common goal of adventure and release from their middle-class surroundings through romance and education. “Gardam’s lean, fast-paced prose is at turns hugely funny and deeply moving. . . . [Her] characters are acutely and compassionately observed.” —Atlantic Monthly “Quirky, enchanting . . . with lively, laugh-out loud elan.” —The Baltimore Sun “Splendid . . . Gardam’s style is perfect.” —The New York Times Book Review “With winning charm and wit . . . Gardam frames her story in dozens of crisp, brief scenes featuring deliciously dizzy conversation.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Ebullient, humorous, and wise, this is a novel to savor.” —Booklist “The portrait of postwar England as conventions crumble and the country is rebuilt is terrific.” —Publishers Weekly

Author : Julie Clark
Publisher : Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1728215730
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Last Flight written by Julie Clark and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY BESTSELLER, & INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER! Look for The Lies I Tell, the next novel from Julie Clark, coming in June 2022! "The Last Flight is thoroughly absorbing—not only because of its tantalizing plot and deft pacing, but also because of its unexpected poignancy and its satisfying, if bittersweet, resolution. The characters get under your skin."—The New York Times Book Review Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear. Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns bright and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move. What he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish. A plan that takes her to the airport, poised to run from it all. But a chance meeting in the airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision. The two women switch tickets, with Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico crashes, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden. For fans of Lisa Jewell and Liv Constantine, The Last Flight is the story of two women—both alone, both scared—and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives. Praise for The Last Flight: "The Last Flight is a wild ride: One part Strangers on a Train, one part Breaking Bad, with more twists than an amusement park roller coaster! Julie Clark is a devilishly inventive storyteller." —Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear and Pretty Things "The Last Flight is everything you want in a book: a gripping story of suspense; haunting, vulnerable characters; and a chilling and surprising ending that stays with you long after the last page." —Aimee Molloy, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Mother "The perfect combination of beautiful prose and high suspense, and an ending that I guarantee will catch you off guard." —Kimberly Belle, internationally bestselling author of Dear Wife and The Marriage Lie "The Last Flight sweeps you into a thrilling story of two desperate women who will do anything to escape their lives. Both poignant and addictive, you'll race through the pages to the novel's chilling end. A must read of the summer!" —Kaira Rouda, internationally bestselling author of Best Day Ever and The Favorite

Author : Serinity Young
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019065970X
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Women Who Fly written by Serinity Young and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beautiful apsaras of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, stories of flying women-some carried by wings, others by clouds, rainbows, floating scarves, and flying horses-reveal the perennial fascination with and ambivalence about female power and sexuality. In Women Who Fly, Serinity Young examines the motif of the flying woman as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions. She considers supernatural women like the Valkyries of Norse legend, who transport men to immortality; winged deities like the Greek goddesses Iris and Nike; figures of terror like the Furies, witches, and succubi; airborne Christian mystics; and wayward, dangerous women like Lilith and Morgan le Fay. Looking beyond the supernatural, Young examines the modern mythology surrounding twentieth-century female aviators like Amelia Earhart and Hanna Reitsch. Throughout, Young demonstrates that female power has always been inextricably linked with female sexuality and that the desire to control it is a pervasive theme in these stories. This is vividly depicted, for example, in the twelfth-century Niebelungenlied, in which the proud warrior-queen Brünnhilde loses her great physical strength when she is tricked into surrendering her virginity. Even in the twentieth-century the same idea is reflected in the exploits of the comic book and film character Wonder Woman who, Young suggests, retains her physical strength only because her love for fellow aviator Steve Trevor goes unrequited. The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, art, and pop culture, Women Who Fly offers a fresh look at the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions throughout the ages and around the world.

Author : Jane Gardam
Publisher : Europa Editions
ISBN 13 : 1609458826
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Crusoe's Daughter written by Jane Gardam and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of Old Filth. “[A] wonderfully old-fashioned novel . . . This post-Victorian charmer is an engrossing delight” (People). In 1904, six-year-old Polly Flint is sent by her sea captain father to live with her aunts in a house by the sea on England’s northeast coast. Orphaned shortly thereafter, Polly will spend the next eighty years stranded in this quiet corner of the world as the twentieth century rages in the background. Through it all, Polly returns again and again to the story of Robinson Crusoe, who, marooned like her, fends off the madness of isolation with imagination. In the Guardian’s series on writers and readers’ favorite comfort books, associate editor Claire Armitstead said of Crusoe’s Daughter, “This is the most bookish of books . . . Every time I return to it, I am comforted by its refusal to conform, its wonderful, boisterous bolshiness, and the intelligence with which it demonstrates that we are what we read.” “Witty, subversive, moving.” —The Times (London) “[A] richly textured novel . . . much occurs on the emotional landscape. We know Polly intimately, and she haunts our imaginations as surely as Crusoe haunts hers . . . a thought-provoking book.” —Library Journal “[The] most seductively entertaining of British novelists.” —Kirkus Reviews

Author : Peter Dickinson
Publisher : Collins & Brown
ISBN 13 : 9781850284116
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Flight of Dragons written by Peter Dickinson and published by Collins & Brown. This book was released on 1998 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining fact with fantasy and science with romance, Peter Dickinson, an award-winning novelist, sets out to prove that dragons really did exist, whilst Wayne Anderson's illustrations bring these creatures to life.

Author : Jane Gardam
Publisher : Europa Editions
ISBN 13 : 1609450337
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Man in the Wooden Hat written by Jane Gardam and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Second in the Old Filth trilogy. “An astute, subtle depiction of marriage . . . absolutely wonderful” (The Washington Post). Acclaimed as Jane Gardam’s masterpiece, Old Filth is a lyrical novel that recalls the fully lived life of Sir Edward Feathers. The Man in the Wooden Hat is the history of his marriage told from the perspective of his wife, Betty, a character as vivid and enchanting as Filth himself. They met in Hong Kong after the war. Betty had spent the duration in a Japanese internment camp. Filth was already a successful barrister, handsome, fast becoming rich, in need of a wife but unaccustomed to romance. A perfect English couple of the late 1940s. As a portrait of a marriage, with all the bittersweet secrets and surprising fulfillment of the fifty-year union of two remarkable people, The Man in the Wooden Hat is a triumph. Fiction of a very high order from a great novelist working at the pinnacle of her considerable power, it will be read and loved and recommended by all the many thousands of readers who found its predecessor, Old Filth, so compelling and thoroughly satisfying. “Funny and affecting . . . It’s remarkable.” —The New York Times Book Review “The latest occasion to celebrate Gardam . . . [a] superb novel.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR “Told with quintessentially British humor . . . Gardam’s prose is witty and precise.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “It’s magnificent. . . . Funny, intelligent and immensely moving.” —Kirkus Reviews

Author : Alex Michaelides
Publisher : Celadon Books
ISBN 13 : 1250304474
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Maidens written by Alex Michaelides and published by Celadon Books. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** "Alex Michaelides’s long-awaited next novel, 'The Maidens,' is finally here...the premise is enticing and the elements irresistible." —The New York Times "A deliciously dark, elegant, utterly compulsive read—with a twist that blew my mind. I loved this even more than I loved The Silent Patient and that's saying something!" —Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient comes a spellbinding tale of psychological suspense, weaving together Greek mythology, murder, and obsession, that further cements “Michaelides as a major player in the field” (Publishers Weekly). Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld? When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.

Author : Jane Gardam
Publisher : Europa Editions
ISBN 13 : 1609451120
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Last Friends written by Jane Gardam and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The satisfying conclusion to Gardam’s Old Filth trilogy offers exquisite prose, wry humor, and keen insights into aging and death” (The New Yorker). While Old Filth introduced readers to Sir Edward Feathers, his dreadful childhood, and his decades-long marriage, The Man in the Wooden Hat was his wife Betty’s story. Last Friends is Terence Veneering’s turn. His beginnings were not those of the usual establishment grandee. Filth’s hated rival in court and in love is the son of a Russian acrobat marooned in the English midlands and a local girl. He escapes the war and later emerges in the Far East as a man of panache and fame. The Bar treats his success with suspicion: Where did this handsome, brilliant Slav come from? This exquisite story of Veneering, Filth, and their circle tells a bittersweet tale of friendship and grace and of the disappointments and consolations of age. They are all, finally, each other’s last friend as this magnificent series ends with the deep and abiding satisfaction that only great literature provides. “[Gardam’s] prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor. She keeps us entertained, and she keeps us guessing. Be thankful for her books. Be thankful for this trilogy, which is ultimately an elegy, created with deep affection.” —The Washington Post “Restores us to an era rich in spectacle and bristling with insinuation and intrigue. Vivid, spacious, superbly witty, and refreshingly brisk . . . the story (and the author) will endure.” —The Boston Globe “All three Gardam books are beautifully written but it’s a pleasure to note that Last Friends is the most enjoyable, the funniest and the most touching.” —National Post

Author : Denis Johnson
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0812988647
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Largesse of the Sea Maiden written by Denis Johnson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2018-01-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty-five years after Jesus’ Son, a haunting new collection of short stories on mortality and transcendence, from National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times • Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air • Chicago Tribune • Newsday • New York • AV Club • Publishers Weekly “Ranks with the best fiction published by any American writer during this short century.”—New York “A posthumous masterpiece.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Boston Globe • New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Bloomberg The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come. Praise for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden “An instant classic.”—Newsday “Exceptional luminosity . . . hits a powerful vein.”—The New York Times Book Review “Grace and oblivion are inextricably yoked in these transcendent stories. . . . [Johnson’s] gift is to extract the beauty in all that brokenness.”—The Wall Street Journal “Nobody ever wrote like Denis Johnson. Nobody ever came close. . . . We’re just left with this miraculous book, these perfect stories, the last words from one of the world’s greatest writers.”—NPR

Author : Jane Gardam
Publisher : Europa Editions
ISBN 13 : 1609451554
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Long Way from Verona written by Jane Gardam and published by Europa Editions. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Far more than just another coming-of-age story” from the award-winning author of the Old Filth trilogy (Bustle). Jane Gardam’s marvelous stories of young girls on the threshold of womanhood—God on the Rocks and Crusoe’s Daughter—have delighted fans and critics alike. These “modern classics” are now joined by a novel that is equally fresh and genuine, comic and touching (The Independent). Jessica Vye introduces herself with an enigmatic pronouncement: “I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal, having had a violent experience at the age of nine.” A revered author has told Jessica that she is, beyond all doubt, a born writer. This proves an accurate prediction of the future, one that indelibly colors her life at school and her perception of the world. Jessica has always known that her destiny would be shaped by her refusal to conform, her compulsion to tell the absolute truth, and her dedication to observing the strange wartime world that surrounds her. What she doesn’t know, however, is that the experiences and ideas that set her apart will also lead her to a new and wholly unexpected life. Told with grace and inimitable wit, A Long Way from Verona is a wise and vivid portrait of adolescent discovery and impending adulthood. “A book to be judged by the highest standards.” —The Spectator “A brilliant, witty, and agonizingly true-to-life novel.” —The Times Literary Supplement “A fiercely funny and personal book.” —The Economist “The qualities for which Gardam is cherished (the quirkiness, the bright-eyed wonder at reality) are already apparent in this early work.” —Kirkus Reviews